Dyson denounced as 'patent troll' by Samsung

The ballbarrow:
Sell inventively
Later came a wheelbarrow. “This produced nervous giggles from garden centres – they thought it looked ridiculous. I sold it mail order, which was successful. It taught me an interesting thing – if you can reach them, there are people who get excited when they
see something different.”

Dyson

Samsung is suing Dyson for 10 million won (about £5.6
million) over a dispute in which it claims its reputation was
harmed when it was accused of copying one of the British company's
vacuum cleaners.

Long-famous for its bagless vacuum cleaners, and more recently
for the popular Airblade hand dryer, Dyson is often held up as an
example of great British innovation in the design and technology
sectors.

Last August Dyson issued proceedings against Samsung for a
patented appliance steering mechanism on its MotoSync range, which
it claimed the Korean manufacturer was infringing. When Samsung's
lawyers presented prior art, which it maintained belonged to the
company, Dyson was forced to withdraw the action that had been
filed. It could not pursue the claim due to loopholes in the patent
system.

Samsung has now retaliated by launching legal action against
Dyson. "Samsung's marketing activities were negatively affected by
Dyson's groundless litigation, which is intolerable," a Samsung
spokesperson told the Korea Times.

When we contacted Dyson, it had this to say about Samsung's
legal challenge: "Dyson pioneered cyclonic vacuum cleaners and
digital motors -- and has been developing them ever since. We
patent our technology, and naturally defend it. It is surprising
that a company over 100 times bigger than Dyson is so worried. The
patent system offers us some protection but not enough: with an
army of lawyers, hidden prior art is occasionally found and ways to
design around existing patents identified."

Dyson is right to an extent -- Samsung's claims that
comparatively tiny Dyson "hurt" its reputation seem overly
histrionic, especially as this is hardly the first time the company
has been accused of being a copycat. In similar situations in the
past the charges of plagiarism levied against Samsung have come
from far larger and more high profile foes, such as Apple. If
anything, mounting this challenge against Dyson is only going to
draw more attention to last year's legal case, which -- let's face
it -- most people were probably unaware of in the first place.

The Korea Times quotes a Samsung executive who accuses
Dyson of having a bad record of litigation with rivals and says the
legal action is designed to prevent similar situations arising in
the future. In other words, it's teaching naughty Dyson a lesson:
don't mess with the big boys.

"Samsung has the right to assess the damage the lawsuit has
caused. Samsung is going to take a hard-line stance against patent
trolls that use litigations as a marketing tool," the executive
said.

Patent trolls are indeed the scourge of innovation, but they are
usually defined as entities or people that hold patents purely to
collect licensing fees from others, rather than companies that use
them in manufacturing their own products. To consign Dyson to this
category is ludicrous given its strong reputation for disruption and product innovation.

From a distance, Samsung turning the tables on Dyson looks like
little more than a big kid asserting its dominance in the
playground through a display of brute strength. By making an
example of Dyson, Samsung is sending a clear warning to smaller
companies that might be considering taking multinationals to court
for infringing their patents; that message being, don't bother.